Douglas Wile holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature and a Ph.D. in East CONTRIBUTOR Asian Languages and Literatures from the University of Wisconsin. He is currently emeritus professor of and Asian Studies from Brooklyn College-City University of New York. His research interests include Chinese sexology, history and comparative philosophy.

Marx, Myth and Metaphysics Debates the Essence of Taijiquan Douglas Wile

DOI ABSTRACT

10.18573/mas.118 This article traces the mythologization, demythologization and remythologization of the origins of taijiquan in China. It describes the association of legendary immortal Sanfeng with the creation of an ‘internal’ martial art by Ming loyalists during the Ming-Qing transition, the historization of the origins KEYWORDs by progressive intellectuals during the late Republican and Mao eras, and the reemergence of the cult of taijiquan, , in the present period as a kind of fundamentalist revival. intellectual history, ideology, Using anonymous online informants, it documents the recent invented traditions, social surveys appearance of new language and philosophical paradigms – materialism and idealism, physics and metaphysics, and self- defense and self-cultivation – in debates around taijiquan’s CITATION true essence. Further, extrapolating from the latest ideological spectrum surveys, the article attempts to divine correlations Wile, Douglas. 2020. ‘Marx, Myth between views on taijiquan’s essence and general alignments and Metaphysics: China Debates the on a ‘liberal-conservative’ axis. The study concludes with an Essence of Taijiquan’. Martial Arts exploration of the special elusiveness of taijiquan as an object of Studies 10, 23-39. definition and the potential for modern movement science to doi.org/10.18573/mas.118 throw light on its essential uniqueness. MARTIAL Marx, Myth and Metaphysics ARTS STUDIES Douglas Wile

Introduction hotly debated between modernizers and traditionalists, became by the second half of the twentieth century a matter of settled history. Owing As China marks its tenth year of annual rejections by UNESCO for to interventions by May Fourth Movement anti-feudalists, and later, the recognition of as ‘intangible cultural heritage’, this leaves official Communist endorsement, pride of progeniture was stripped ’s taekkyeon as the sole Asian martial art to receive this honor. from fabled Daoist alchemist Zhang Sanfeng and awarded to late-Ming Now, adding insult to injury, both and Korea are poised to apply local garrison commander Wangting. However, in the current for recognition of their own national versions of taijiquan. This revives ‘reformed and open’ martial arts marketplace, there is no monolithic painful memories of similar rebuffs for the 2008 Olympics, standard of authenticity or truth, with a return to localism, lineage and which included both and taekwondo, and ’s inclusion for even myth. 2020 (now 2021). Only sumo wrestling, taekwondo and capoeira enjoy the status of ‘national sports’ in their respective birthplaces, Today, in the midst of heated controversies over whether martial arts while China’s unofficial national sport is table tennis. The grounds for should be promoted for health or self-defense, and which style is most rejection of China’s UNESCO application has been that the language is effective in combat, it is easy to forget those periods when its having ‘too vague’ and a tendency to ‘define concepts with other concepts’. This any role in a modernizing China was called into question. During the highlights the urgency the Chinese feel to gain recognition for their early twentieth century, some progressives saw it as a feudal remnant, origination claims and to more clearly define the essence of the art. rife with magical thinking and, at best, irrelevant for the modern battlefield. During the Cultural Revolution, Red Guards condemned all In the twentieth century, the Nationalist overthrow of the Manchu physical education as ‘bourgeois decadence’. Morning calisthenics were dynasty, the Nationalist-Communist united front against Japan, and replaced by ‘Little Red Book Exercise’ and ‘Little Red Book Martial Art’: the Communist victory in the Civil War determined that China would recitation of passages from Quotations of Chairman Mao with expressive enter the modern era as an independent nation, with a one-party gestures. Now, with global acceptance of taijiquan’s benefits for health state and socialist economy. Marxism would replace and self-development, it has become a source of national pride and and the Nationalist Party’s ‘Three Principles of the People’, and a ‘cult private profit. of personality’ would grow up around Chairman Mao, surpassing even that of Generalissimo Chiang. China’s unique culture would no Following Mao’s death in 1976 and overthrow of the ‘Gang of Four’, longer be the gift to humanity of mythological figures like the Yellow through Deng Xiaoping’s 1978 policy of ‘restoring order’ and ‘reform Emperor, God of Agriculture, or Fu Xi, but a product of the genius of and openness’, to today’s ‘China dream’, ‘go global’, ‘socialism with the Chinese people, who would now take credit and rightful ownership. Chinese characteristics’, ‘harmonious society’, and ‘civilized society’, China in the twenty-first century has become a mixed economy of state- After 1949, both the means of material production and intangible owned and private enterprises. This duality plays out in the martial cultural heritage were nationalized. Thus, literary Chinese would arts marketplace as the parallel development of standardized forms and be preserved, but the baihua vernacular would become the style of national sports academies with a resurgence of legacy-brand family everyday written communication; local dialects would be preserved, but styles and local for-profit tourism. While the former fault lines putonghua (Mandarin) would become the lingua franca; the logographic between mythologizers and historicizers reflected Nationalist versus (characters) writing system would be preserved, but strokes simplified; Communist sympathies, today’s divisions are not so easily reducible Hanyu would replace the myriad Western romanization systems, to a simple one-dimensional political binary. Current debates are no and the whole country would go metric. Illiteracy would be ‘swept away’ less acrimonious, but new language now dominates the discourse: (saomang) through universal education. In the realm of martial arts, materialist versus idealist, physics versus metaphysics, and self- family styles would be preserved, but standardized and brought under cultivation versus self-defense. the aegis of national physical education institutes. Secrecy, mythology, and claims of invincibility and immortality would be banished, replaced by openness, history, and science.

Taijiquan’s popularity in China, its global dissemination and its reputation as a repository of the quintessence of has made it a kind of contested ‘Holy Land’, fought over by shifting factions in China’s ongoing culture wars. Taijiquan’s origins, once

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Myth versus History to throw out the bathwater: charlatanism, superstition and professional jealousy. An iconoclast but no nihilist, Tang was a lawyer by trade, who One would think that ’s, ‘Let us rise up together in the great knew the difference between fact and fiction, and how to build a case task of establishing Chinese martial arts on a scientific basis’ [Tang based on historical documents and field investigations. His 1930 Shaolin Wudang kao was a shot over the bow to the conservative martial arts strengthening and hence of national salvation. May my people rise community and established him as the Lu Xun of Chinese martial arts again!’ [Zheng 1946; Wile trans., 1982: 6] would make them natural history – a man prepared to wash China’s dirty linen of self-delusion allies in the movement to promote Chinese martial arts. Both were and superciliousness in public and let the slings and arrows be damned. born during the waning days of the Manchu dynasty and lived through His Shaolin Wudang kao exploded myths and exposed ideological fault the Nationalist Revolution, Communist Revolution, Civil War and lines. It threatened the mystique and rice bowls of professional martial Japanese invasion. For perspective, American readers should imagine artists and polarized martial arts partisans and policy makers. Although themselves living through the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World no one dared to say this out loud, some may have noted that Japan was Wars I and II, Korean War, and Vietnam War, all in one lifetime, able to reconcile emperor worship and Shinto war gods with radical and in your own backyard (except that the lasted modernization of the economy and military; why deny China its Daoist 20 years, and the Japanese invasion lasted 50). Both Zheng and Tang immortal Zhang Sanfeng and Chan Buddhist patriarch Bhodidharma? served in state-sponsored martial arts institutes, but gravitated to opposite poles of the political spectrum and ultimately died on opposite The association of legendary Daoist alchemist and immortal Zhang shores of the Taiwan Straits. Zheng served as personal physician to Sanfeng with the creation of taijiquan begins with late Madame Chiang and cultural ambassador from the ROC to the Chinese ’s 1669 ‘ Zhengnan muzhiming’ (Epitaph for Wang diaspora, and after 1949, Tang joined the PRC National Physical Zhengnan) and son Baijia’s ‘ quanfa’ (Martial Art of the Internal Culture and Sports Committee as special consultant. In normal times, School), where we are told that the principles of a martial art based on the worlds of martial artists and intellectuals would rarely intersect. ‘softness overcoming hardness’ were revealed to Zhang Sanfeng in a However, just as with the extraordinary times that produced Huang dream by , the God of War. The name Zhang Sanfeng, and its several homonyms, was a magnet for attribution by various esoteric dynasty, engaged twentieth-century intellectuals were forced to choose practices, including martial arts, inner alchemy, bedroom arts, and sides and cross class boundaries to study with martial artists from the even calligraphy. Thus, by a thin tissue of associations, Yang family and enlist them in the cause of national salvation. literati patrons connected the soft-style theory of the ‘Martial Art of the Internal School’ and the Wang Zong of its genealogy to the trove A critical interrogation of the two quotations cited at the beginning of texts serendipitously ‘discovered’ by fellow Yongnian townsman of this section would call our attention to the two words: ‘scientific’ in a salt shop and credited to Zhang Sanfeng and Wang and ‘self-cultivation’. Although Tang and Zheng were both Zongyue. passionate advocates for martial arts, these words betray fundamental differences. For progressive Tang, ‘scientific’ was code for historicity, Finally, we are told, ’s teachings were transmitted by popularization, and universality; for conservative Zheng, ‘self- disciple Jiang Fa to the Chen family of Chenjiagou, Wen County, in cultivation’ was code for ‘render unto Caesar’, turn inward, and native Province, where their servant absorbed them tradition. Students of Chinese intellectual history may also hear echoes by spying on his masters. The name ‘taijiquan’ does not appear in the of the Cheng/Zhu School of Principle, emphasizing discovery of the Huang texts or in the Chen family biographies or form manuals, and dao through objective observation, versus the Lu/Wang School of the one is at pains to discern any soft-style language in the early Chen , emphasizing discovery of our innate goodness through subjective family writings. As the generations that follow and introspection. However, with Japan eager to make China the ‘jewel Yang Luchan continued to modify and transmit the art to ‘outsiders’, we in the crown’ of its empire, it is not surprising that sincere Chinese witness an explosion of new family-name styles – Wu (Yuxiang), Wu patriots had divergent visions of how to save the nation. (Jianquan), Hao, Sun – and mass-market publications, each featuring different, and often contradictory, accounts of origins and the cast of Both Tang and Zheng spoke apocalyptically about ‘annihilation of characters. Details apart, what is relevant for the present discussion of the nation and extinction of the race’ (guowang miezhong) and linked the dialectical divide between mythologizers and historicizers is the national survival with preservation and promotion of the martial arts. reactionary resurgence today of taijiquan creation myths. However, Tang concluded that the first step in preserving the baby was

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Invoking a supernatural source and soft-style martial art by the Zhang’s ‘philosophical thought’ and ‘martial arts thought’, and concludes Huangs and Yangs coincides with periods of aggression by ‘hard’ on a note of patriotism, saying that his teachings allow us to ‘defend invaders – Manchus, Europeans, and Japanese – and begs the question ourselves against violent attack and resist foreign aggressors’ [Baidu of whether this should be interpreted as an allegorical strategy for baike 2019]. cultural survival under colonial occupation, and whether mythological genesis encourages an enduring legacy of magical thinking in taijiquan Reacting to the historicizing push by progressives, Zheng Manqing culture? It reappears once again today in the midst of unprecedented disingenuously asks: ‘Some people have indulged in wild slander, prosperity and absence of military threat: the unholy alliance of mythos claiming that taijiquan was not created by the Immortal Zhang Sanfeng. and marketing has seemingly not lost its appeal. Tang was criticized I do not know what their motives are’ [Wile 1985: 11]. However, in from his left by those who thought martial arts were feudal dregs, and his preface to the Shaolin Wudang kao, Tang Hao explicitly stated his Zheng, for his part, was criticized from his right by those who saw motivation: shortening the traditional form as heresy. In a further ironic twist, today’s advocates of historicity and science are now called ‘conservative’ My purpose in writing this little book, on the one hand, is (baoshou). The best analogy for Western readers would be creationism to inform readers about the nature of so-called Shaolin and and evolution, where both views continue to coexist in the culture. Wudang, and on the other hand, to address the conflicts and From the beginning, then, the myth versus history, Shaolin versus jealousies between professional martial artists in both camps. Wudang, internal versus external, and hard versus soft dialectic has had For more than ten years, they have engaged in incessant very political meanings in China, meanings which may not be readily squabbling. After reading this little book, perhaps they can apparent to Western students. take a more expansive view, rise up together and work for the establishment of martial arts on a scientific basis. In 1943, Chen Gong opined: ‘Whether Zhang Sanfeng or someone [Tang 1930: 7-8] else, whoever invented this subtle and profound martial art must have been an ancient Daoist possessed of the highest wisdom and could not Tang paid a personal and professional price for his dissent during the possibly have been a common man’ [Wile 1983, Translator’s Note, Republican period, when his views were considered pro-communist n.p.]. Fast forward to the present, a poster on the Taijiquanba blog and subversive. Far from seeking to consign traditional martial arts informs us that, ‘Zhang Sanfeng is an incarnation of Xuanwu, the God to the dustbin, however, Tang Hao hoped, by putting them on an of War’ [Yingxiong 2019], citing as proof his own personal visitation historical and scientific basis, to assure their survival in the modern in a dream by the immortal and his karmically fated discovery of Ming era. Like Nietzsche’s ‘God is dead’, Tang Hao’s ‘Zhang Sanfeng is dead’ dynasty relics in a cave associated with Master Sanfeng’s alchemical aimed to ennoble human creativity and not denigrate it. He went on to practices. The poster obviously takes the notion of immortality and produce voluminous studies of China’s physical culture, and lived to see ongoing revelation literally, but feels obliged to rationalize his belief by his findings become official history, and to be honored as the father of interpreting this as ‘ () and the effect of quantum entanglement’. modern martial arts studies.

Zhang Sanfeng’s reemergence as the creator of taijiquan seems part As the Shaolin-Wudang paradigm took on a life of its own, it played of a broader movement to reconstitute his cult, along with claims by out as the organizing principle behind the departmental structure of various individuals to teach the ‘original’ taijiquan, or even that Zhang the Central Martial Arts Academy, where rivalry between Shaolin and created a martial art far deadlier than taijiquan, but so arduous that Wudang departments became a virtual parody of professional pettiness. none dared to study it. The 2019 Baidu.com online encyclopedia entry An epic challenge match between Wang Ziping (standing in for the for Zhang Sanfeng, running to over 10,000 words, treats the figure elderly ), and representing the Wudang faction, and Gao as if historical, complete with exact birth date and ascension (yuhua); Zhendong the Shaolin, was officially declared a tie, when the referee being immortal, of course, there is no date for the death. Hagiography pulled the contestants apart, fearing a fatal outcome. The year was 1928, becomes biography, fiction becomes fact, and immortality becomes two years after the Northern Expedition against the warlords, one year possibility. Most of these hagiographies place Zhang in an unbroken after the Massacre of Communists and unionists, and the lineage from , who himself is the subject of a similar process of outset of the Civil War. This embarrassing contest must have been reification and divinization, complete with imperial honorifics and fresh on the mind of Tang Hao when he wrote his 1930 Shaolin Wudang biographical details that span the centuries of the Song, Yuan, Ming and kao, and was a microcosm of the divisions tearing China apart even as the wolf was at the door and unity was most needed.

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In the current economic environment, marketers see no harm in encyclopedia gives both Wangting and Sanfeng versions (in that order), encouraging consumers to equate antiquity with authenticity, including but shares nothing disparaging about Sanfeng accounts. More tellingly, supernatural origination and attenuated lineages, in the public’s endless the entry devotes extensive coverage to development projects in Wen quest for ‘the real thing’. Whereas old cleavages may have reflected County to create a center for Chen style training, research and to lobby political sympathies, today’s remythologization movement has been for UNESCO intangible cultural status. It notes that these efforts have reinvigorated by famed novelist ’s Shendiao Xialu (The Condor received increasingly high-level recognition from official bodies in Heroes) and (Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber), and Jet both martial arts and cultural departments. Although myth and history Li’s portrayal of the immortal Zhang in the film have not quite achieved intellectual parity, there is a decided shift from (). Once again, the old alchemist is very much alive ideological to economic interest. and well in the popular imagination, enjoying a hyperreal revival. Of the several paths to apotheosis – mythology, heredity, and folklore A high-profile case of remythologization is Ma Yun and ’s – Zhang seems to have leapt from folklore to fiction to immortality. collaboration to create a syncretic quasi-religion based on bits and This demonstrates two basic strategies for instilling value, power and pieces of various gongfu, and taijiquan styles, together with confidence in a practice: one is to credit it to a supernatural source, elements of Confucianism, Daoism, and to form Taiji . and the other is to credit it to human creativity and testable efficacy. They eschew the language of idealism, materialism or dialectics, seeking The resurgence of Zhang Sanfeng, Wang Zongyue and Wudang instead to leverage their economic clout and media star power to Mountains origination myths would have pioneering historians Tang influence the Olympic Committee to accept taijiquan as a regular event, Hao, Xu Zhen and Gu Liuxin turning over in their graves, but resurgent to offer a healthy spiritual home for China’s youth and to reassure the cultural fundamentalism seems to be one of the side-effects of late-stage world of China’s peaceful intentions. Ma tells us that his personal three- modernity. word mantra, taken from the taiji classics, is centering (ding), following (sui) and surrendering (she). Their ambitious project includes a gongfu The , the Immortal Zhang’s putative haunts, fantasy film, Gongshoudao, starring Ma himself in the role of a middle- has joined Wenxian and Yongnian, hometowns of the Chens and aged man who dreams he becomes a martial arts superhero, as well Yangs, as taiji tourist destinations, with considerable investment as a Taiji Zen Institute to propagate ‘taijiquan culture’ nationally and in human resources, schools, accommodation, museums, and even internationally. commemorative monuments. They are in competition with the state- sponsored physical education academies that teach the simplified and Comrade Ma is a confirmed member of the Communist Party, which standardized forms. There have always been rice bowl issues in martial apparently sees no contradiction in clutching billionaires to its bosom. arts styles, but the policy of ‘’ (go global) has made For Ma, then, taijiquan embodies his personal ethic and the ethos of the the stakes much higher. Chinese people, and Gongshoudao is an allegory for China’s peace-loving global posture. From the Boxers to Falun dafa, from the Democracy Tracing the two competing narratives in semi-official reference Wall Movement to the Hong Kong protests, from laogai reeducation works shows a gradual but marked softening trend in the treatment through labor to the Cultural Revolution’s rustication campaign, of the Zhang Sanfeng legend. The 1987 Zhongguo dacidian there is a strategy of reform and transformation through immersive (Chinese Martial Arts Dictionary) cites Tang Hao’s findings and calls the kinesthetic experience. Whether it is apparatchiks and intellectuals Zhang Sanfeng tale ‘ridiculous’ and a ‘fabrication’ [Chinese Martial ‘sent down’ to participate in manual labor or protestors dodging the Arts Dictionary 1987: 15]. In their ‘Preface’, the editors explain the police, or the more obvious qigong practices of the Boxers, Falungong, difficulty of bringing martial arts into the modern world with ‘feudal’ and today’s Taiji Zen/gongshoudao, we can see lessons learned from retentions on the one hand and ‘radical left’ forces on the other, the playbook of religions, that have long used mudra, genuflexion, together with a tendency to value practice over theory. As we enter the davening, and prostration, as well as ecstatic and ritual dance, to next decade, Xi Yuntai’s Jianming wushu cidian (Abbreviated dictionary transport the faithful and engage the total person. of the martial arts), acknowledges the mythological versions in a single neutral sentence, but goes on to promote the line as To summarize this section, we have seen the mythologization of ‘generally accepted’ [Xi 1990]. A decade later, the Zhongguo wushu baike taijiquan’s origins and efficacy in the ‘invented tradition’ of Zhang quanshu (Complete Chinese martial arts encyclopedia) references the Tang Sanfeng, its positivist demythologization as a modernizing project and dynasty Xu Xuanping and Ming dynasty Zhang Sanfeng theories, but the current attempt at remythologizing as a fundamentalist reaction, says that Chen Wangting is accepted by most today as the historical featuring divinization, revelatory epistemology, and mediatized re- creator [Encyclopedia 1998]. Similarly, the current online Baidu baike enchantment in a newly industrialized and free-market environment.

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Idealism versus Materialism Hegel’s idealism expressed itself as a teleological view of history, which he considered the unfolding of Spirit in time. If we divide idealists The campaign that Tang Hao and his successor Gu Liuxin waged in into subjectivist and objectivist, epistemological and ontological, the early twentieth century to ground taijiquan in history and rescue it today’s Chinese advocates of taijiquan’s idealist essence are chiefly from mythology plays out today in the battle between idealism (weixin of the objectivist/ontological stripe, meaning that they locate the zhuyi) and materialism (weiwu zhuyi). Formerly confined to rarified ultimate reality and authority above the world of empirical experience. philosophical debates, this more classical dichotomy harkens back to Confucius’s ‘mandate of Heaven’, Mozi’s ‘will of Heaven’ and Mencius’s Plato and Aristotle. But why this sudden shift in discursive register in ‘Heavenly nature’, all locate a controlling principle above the material China’s taijiquan polemics? Plato’s Forms are eternal, ideal exemplars, world. Buddhism’s ‘emptiness’ can be approached both from an existing outside of space and time, just as it was believed that the human objectivist or subjectivist perspective, as can the ’s ‘infinite’, soul is qualitatively distinct from the body and strives to free itself from ‘dao’ and ‘mystery’, which can be seen as descriptions of the natural its material prison. Aristotle, however, held that the qualities of things world or as a noumenal realm above the natural world. Both are have no abstract, independent existence outside of substances, and that nontheistic. Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism placed li (principles) as the human mind proceeds from perception to conception, finally testing prior to and above the natural world (qi), that they govern. The Lu- theories against the objective world. Wang School of the Mind posited that, apart from the mind, there are no li, wu, or shi (principles, things, or phenomena), thus falling into Much of Judeo-Christian theology is underpinned by idealism, and the subjectivist/epistemological category. Materialist-idealist theory as a preoccupation of philosophy, it resurfaces in the late eighteenth was pervasive in the early decades of the People’s Republic, as Marxist century with Kant’s transcendental idealism and Hegel’s absolute historians sorted traditional schools of thought – Confucian, Daoist, idealism. Hegel’s dialectical method was reframed by Marx in the Legalist and Moist – into progressive or reactionary according to their form of dialectical materialism, which in turn was embraced by proto-materialist or idealist tendencies. Chinese communist thinkers, who interpreted all of intellectual and political history in terms of class struggle: idealism representing the With the establishment of ‘the theory of Marx and the thought of Mao’ interests of the ruling class and materialism the oppressed. Although as ideological orthodoxy, idealism became a strongly pejorative term, Existentialism’s attack on theism, and Postmodernism’s attack on surviving on the margins of Mainland China as an anti-communist structuralism and essentialism continued the anti-idealist tradition, it is statement in Taiwan, Hong Kong and overseas Chinese communities still chiefly through Marx that today’s Chinese positions are articulated. around the world. Thus, for some it is a badge of honor, and for others a crown of thorns. The history of established ideologies in China goes For Marx and Mao, idealism is no innocent intellectual thought experiment, but, often in the guise of religion, a tool of the privileged Neo-Confucianism during the Song. Dialectical materialism is simply to justify all forms of inequality and exploitation. Idealism offers the latest iteration of established ideology. With dialectics as the teleological explanations for natural phenomena and seeks to regulate gold-standard of truth, both idealists and materialists claim yin-yang social behavior by appeal to revealed scripture. It explains our station in cosmology as the primitive version of their metaphysics and proto- life by reincarnation or predestination, and dictates the most intimate science. The cosmology that idealists embrace as China’s metaphysics, details of sex and diet, enforced by omnitscient surveillance. Based on dialectical materialists hold up as evidence of China’s early dialectical our deeds and faith in this life, it promises rewards or punishments thinking. The sway of the yin-yang paradigm and Marxism in China is in an afterlife and seeks to interpret the dispositions of the gods by comparable to the intellectual hegemony of monotheism and democracy divination, oracles, omens and prophecy, and to influence them by in the West, where even patently polytheistic religions are forced to prayer, supplication and sacrifice. It supports a class of priests, monks, argue that the many are all manifestations of the One, and even the and shamans, while rationalizing class and caste hierarchies, and most authoritarian regimes display some trappings of representative taxes the poor to underwrite awe-inspiring architectural and artistic government. projects, and conscripts them to fight in its holy wars. The ruling class co-opts religion to buttress its claim to rule by divine right, while How does idealism play out in the debate over the true nature of religion benefits from imperialism to carry out mass conversions by the taijiquan? There are two ways: the first is the proposition that principle word or the sword. Materialism, by contrast, according to the Maoist is prior to practice, and the second is that mind (yi) is prior to and leads interpretation, seeks to empower the oppressed in their struggle for the body. Moreover, these principles are revealed to humankind by equality and dignity by directing attention to improving conditions in demigods Huangdi and Fu Xi, sages Confucius and Laozi, and immortals this life and throwing off the yoke by any means necessary. like Zhang Sanfeng: they did not require a posteriori knowledge derived

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from practice. Zhang Xiaoping states the first argument of the idealist From beginning to end, the movements of taijiquan reflect the case most succinctly when he says, ‘The art of taijiquan is based first on glory of dialectical philosophy. Every posture is the physical principles, and technique follows. It derives from the [Book of image and artistic expression of the dialectical method. The Changes], and its principles are based on traditional Chinese medicine’ Chinese are a hard-working and intelligent people, who [Zhang 2013: 52]. Idealism is a time-honored strategy for conferring produced brilliant ancient culture, the principles of primitive gravitas and infallibility on what might otherwise be dismissed as mere dialectics, and taijiquan as the embodiment of the dialectical matter of opinion. method. [Cao 2010] The second aspect is addressed by an anonymous author writing under the pen name Lingdong Taiji, who rhetorically asks how important is This echoes the words of President Xi Jinping himself, who in a Qiushi the classics’ injunction to ‘use the mind and not force’. He concludes, article entitled ‘Dialectical Materialism is ‘Although it is said that existence is a precondition for consciousness, Members’ World View and Methodology’ declared: ‘From earliest nevertheless, by the same token, consciousness can influence the times, China was aware of the concept of contradictions, as in “Yin and body, as, for example, when the mind directs the qi to sink to the yang, this is the dao”’ [Xi 2019]. Completing the trifecta of dialectical ’ [Lingdong 2019]. He reminds us that taijiquan’s slow motion materialism, the Party, and taijiquan, Li Yingjie offers this paean to is intended to facilitate mental control over movement, and that taijiquan and to the Party: ‘The whole nation strives to achieve good achieving relaxation is a function of the imagination. Just as in medical health, and taijiquan is as precious as gold. […] All of us martial artists practice, where psychology is critical to the healing process, he says are one big family. Perfect your taiji and follow the Party’ [Li 2015]. The that without the role of the mind, taijiquan becomes no different from Party is the keeper of the flame of dialectical materialism, and taijiquan dance or aerobics. Taking it a step further, an anonymous poster on the is one of its sacraments. ‘Dongfang Zixun’ blog warns, ‘I believe that zoomorphic postures are harmful to taijiquan principles and that they will inevitably result in Amplifying the dialectical aspect of dialectical materialism and its emphasis on the physical body in combat situations, which, in reality, is relationship to taijiquan is He Xianquan, who gives us a primer on tantamount to recommending hard-style techniques’ [Anon. 2019]. He classical Marxist dialectics and how taijiquan exemplifies its three laws: says that it is the spirit of the animal that should inform the movement, the unity and interpenetration of opposites, the transformation of and not a crude imitation of the outer form or brute force. Embodying quantity into quality, and the negation of negation. According to He’s the spirit ensures that taijiquan does not descend to the level of analysis, movement and stillness, fullness and emptiness, opening and ‘external’ styles, but rises to the ’s closing are examples of the unity of opposites, and ‘hardness in the teaching that, ‘Studying taijiquan is the foundation for entering the midst of softness, and softness in the midst of hardness’ are seen as the dao’. In sum, then, the idealist case rests on the assertion that taijiquan’s interpenetration of opposites. The quantity of repetitions in practice principles precede practice, and that the mind leads the body. gives rise to qualitative progress in skill, and the negation of negation reveals itself in the endless process of correction and progress through By contrast, the materialist case is a form of valorization by empiricism. criticism and self-criticism [He 2018]. Given the prestige of dialectical materialism in Mainland China, it is not surprising that attempts to align taijiquan theory with materialist Finally, dialectical materialism is the standard by which Chinese culture ideology far outnumber the idealist. If there is any nuance of difference itself is validated, as the ‘Preface’ to the Chinese Martial Arts Encyclopedia among proponents of taijiquan as an example of dialectical materialism says: ‘Chinese culture is a high culture that emphasizes dialectics. in action, it is between those that emphasize the ‘material’ aspect and Although dialectical materialism is a foreign concept, our culture has those that emphasize the ‘dialectical’ aspect. Representing the material many examples […] together with the principle of the unity of man side is an anonymous author, whose ‘Taijiquan yu bianzhengfa’ and nature, and body and mind’ [Ed. Com. 1998]. However, while the (Taijiquan and dialectics) says, ‘These opposing but mutually dependent editors assert that traditional Chinese medicine is superior to Western elements are objectively real, concrete entities, and not empty and void. medicine, socialism is superior to capitalism, and, of course, Chinese They are observable, visible, tangible physical entities and not formulas, martial arts are superior to Western martial arts, they allow that these invisible, intangible mystical entities’ [Anon. 2018c]. This is clearly a exist ‘on different levels’ and must, in effect, be judged by a double rebuttal to idealist attempts to ‘spiritualize’ taijiquan. standard.

A classic expression of the dialectical emphasis in relation to taijiquan is In the debate between idealists and materialists, are we dealing with a Cao Degui’s : ‘chicken-and-egg’ dilemma, or a classic case of existence and essence?

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Before the first man realized that cords or columns of air of different Western science. He argues that Chinese health sciences are not limited lengths produced different pitches when vibrated, one could argue by the narrow perspective of Newtonian physics but play by the rules that the basic physical principles of acoustics already existed and did of ‘organicism, entropy, and nonequilibrium thermodynamics’, making not come into being only after the first string was plucked or reed was it a third epistemological model, somewhere between science and blown. Then people began to make music, and finally the principles of philosophy, but closer to metaphysics [Huang 2008: 1-61]. Among these melody, harmony and rhythm were organized into what we call music cross currents of opinion, we have seen those that hold that China lacks theory. Thus, Mersenne did not dictate to the universe that a string half metaphysics to its credit, lacks it to its shame, and owns it to its glory. the length, four times the tension, or one quarter the mass produces an octave. Similarly, the laws of biophysics were discovered by man but An anonymous poster on the ‘Taijiquanba’ blog stakes out a pro- not invented by man. The question comes down to discovery by trial- empiricist position that nevertheless maintains a cautious skepticism and-error or by divine revelation, just as with evolution and creation, of science. He says that those who try to analyze taijiquan with the and this is where ideology and politics enter the picture. Is there some tools of Western science are ignorant of taijiquan, science and history, synthesis between these theses and antitheses? and insists that taijiquan is a purely experiential fighting system that includes physical and psychological factors that defy current scientific investigation [Anon. 2013a]. Another anonymous poster on the same thread joins the chorus of pro-empiricists, when he adds, ‘The taijiquan Physics versus Metaphysics classics are the summation and fruit of practice, and it is an error to mistake the fruit for the process’ [Anon. 2013b]. Here, of course, what Before addressing the question of physics and metaphysics in is meant is that practice is the process, and theory the fruit; metaphysics the taijiquan debate, it is perhaps necessary to examine the more makes the mistake of putting the ‘cart before the horse’, confusing fundamental question of the appropriateness of considering ‘existence and essence’. metaphysics at all in analyzing Chinese thought. Since the 18th century European Enlightenment, there is a long lineage of thinkers who, Seeking a way out of this metaphysical morass, Lingdong Taiji offers disillusioned with Church teachings and religion in general, have three reasons why taijiquan has no need for mythical and metaphysical sought out examples of other cultures whose best were free of aggrandizement. First, in its three-hundred-year history, there are metaphysics. Famed sinologist Joseph Needham says: continuous lineages and a rich literature of theoretical texts. Second, yin-yang is a thoroughly scientific concept and should not be considered We believe that the Chinese mind throughout the ages did some kind of occult knowledge. Third, now that taijiquan has been not, on the whole, feel the need for metaphysics; physical widely popularized and practiced in public places by millions, there are Nature (with all that implied at the highest levels) sufficed. The no secrets or miraculous powers. He concludes that the current wave Chinese were extremely loath to separate the One from the of mystification has taken place because of gongfu fantasy novels and many, or the spiritual from the material. Organic naturalism films, exaggerated claims by self-styled masters, and the expectations was their philosophia perennis. of longtime practitioners who, failing to manifest super-powers, are [Needham 1969: II, xxiv] convinced they must be missing some closely held secrets [Lingdong 2019]. In discussing Heidegger’s indebtedness to the , Reinhard May says that he is ‘neither indebted to Aristotelian logic nor receptive to Recent reality checks for the ‘internal’ martial arts have resulted in an ontology involving a subject-object dichotomy, nor, above all, being public relations disasters, prompting anti-metaphysical critics like conditioned by any theology’ [May 1996: 229]. However, the intellectual Zhang Feng to comment, ‘Comparatively, Chinese martial arts still freedom that Needham and Heidegger applaud as superior, Hajime contain too much mysterious stuff. For example, what is the actual Nakamura decries as ‘a lack of general laws’, ‘grammatical ambiguity’ power of so-called “gongfu”? Does the fabled “internal energy” really and ‘failure to distinguish genus and ’ [Nakamura 1964: exist? Apart from flesh and bones, when you strike a blow with the fist, 532]. Not sparing his own Japanese language, he finds it inferior to what other spiritual force is there?’ [Zhang 2017]. This echoes Jet Li’s Greek, Sanskrit and German, and inadequate for rigorous philosophy. assessment of soft-style martial arts as nothing but ‘flowery postures’ Precisely the opposite view is expressed by MD, TCM doctor, and (), or, in the vernacular, ‘beancurd boxing’ (doufuquan). taijiquan practitioner Huang Mingda, who denies that China lacks metaphysics, declaring that yin-yang theory not only qualifies as A perfect example of the starry-eyed student that the anti-mystifiers advanced cosmology, but is more intellectually sophisticated than target is Ai Xiaofeng, who says:

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When you have really penetrated this art and understand its repelling to people taking literally what they see in gongfu films and principles, then you will have a completely new understanding misinterpreting the function of slowness and avoidance of force in and impression of whatever you experience. Now, when I the classics. He says that taijiquan’s effectiveness is simply a subtle listen to the dialogue in gongfu films, I feel that the actor’s application of the natural laws of physics [Li 2012]. An author who lines have acquired profound meaning, and are absolutely not writes under the pseudonym ‘Taijizhe’ adds a tone of sarcasm in a post wild imaginings or gibberish, but full of lessons on the most entitled, ‘To all of you grandmasters, talking about “qi” to beginning advanced training methods and techniques. Even the most taijiquan students is pure deceit’. Attempting to bring the discussion fantastic scenes do not appear miraculous or unrealistic. back down to earth, he says: [Ai 2020] Qi is simply power, and it would be preferable to call it such. Two cultural phenomena have become lightning rods for the anti- What we have traditionally mystified as ‘spirit’, ‘mind’, and ‘qi’ mystifiers: gongfu fantasy films and public demonstrations of non- is simply a method for concentrating the power of one’s whole contact repelling (, or geshan daniu). An anonymous being on one point. […] During the 1970’s and 80’s, taijiquan was poster who writes under the pseudonym Tianyi eschews the terms transformed into a kind of qigong, and the path of power came of metaphysics or idealism, but says that taijiquan evolved from a to be described in terms of , meridians, acupoints, and combat art, to a health practice, to a recreational activity, but promising breath. miracles only hurts the reputation of the art. Citing physics to rebut [Taijizhe 2017] metaphysics, he says that, ‘using four ounces to deflect a thousand pounds’ is objective bio-mechanics, and can indeed allow a smaller Here, Taijizhe attributes the turn in taiji to adopting the language person to overcome a larger one, but should not be oversold or and goals of qigong with its acquiring the mystique of inner alchemy. mystified [Tianyi n.d.]. A similar theme is struck by an anonymous Similarly, apologists for what looks like staged demonstrations of non- contact uprooting (bengtiao) attempt to psychologize the phenomenon cures, developing qi in months or days, and opening the microcosmic by citing a kind of ‘resonance’ between minds that only works when orbit, all without sweat or fatigue’ [Anon. 2018a]. He blames gongfu masters and disciples are ‘on the same wavelength’. Thus, they claim it is novels, videos, exaggerated claims and the antiquated language of not willful deception but a kind of parapsychological cooperation. the classics, and general fascination with all things metaphysical and mysterious, citing the proverb, ‘The truth fits on one piece of paper; Another writer who deploys neuroscience to demystify song (relaxing), deceit fills volumes’. He says that while it is true that the mind directs and goes by the pseudonym Biwugong, says we should not obfuscate the body, it is not a disembodied force. song but consider it a natural progression on the path to skill mastery. He compares it to the difference between marching and strolling, or There are two types of criticisms of mystification in taijiquan. The first the stages of mastering the biomechanics of bicycle riding [Bi 2006]. is wholesale condemnation, and the second attempts to explain it as a Chen Shiping interrogates the classic injunction to ‘use the mind and kind of semantic misunderstanding or parapsychological phenomenon. not force’, finding it the source of taiji’s detour into metaphysics and An example of the first is Wan Shengting’s: failing to understand that it refers only to local force rather than rooted, whole-body force. This integrated, coordinated movement produces a The private martial arts scene has descended into chaos, feeling in the sensorium that came to be called qi or , which is simply with people making wildly exaggerated claims for taijiquan, the for that feeling and should not be mystified [Chen promising non-contact striking and curing all illnesses. 2019]. Chen Shiping thus makes the same link between biomechanics, They mystify the teachings, foster religious devotion to the psychophysiology, and peak experience that Csikszentmihalyi calls ‘flow’ organization, and worship the master. A healthy cultural art and what Tillerman calls ‘entrainment’. Similarly, Chen Xiong quotes does not indulge in ‘closing the gates and proclaiming oneself Zheng Manqing as saying, ‘Taijiquan corresponds perfectly with the king’. laws of mechanics because it is based on nature […] Although taijiquan [Wan 2017] derives from philosophy, it can be proven by science’ [Chen 2018]. Biwugong is content to give a perfectly naturalistic explanation, without In this assessment, Wan offers a very dismal diagnosis of the state of embroidering, whereas Zheng accords science the role of corroborating the private taijiquan marketplace. The second type expresses equal what was already apparent to ‘philosophy’. This exemplifies the revulsion, but offers a more sympathetic explanation. For example, different approaches of physics and metaphysics. Li Chengyin attributes belief in non-contact and minimal-contact

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Self-Defense versus Self-Cultivation that warn against exaggerated cure-all claims. Representative of the biomedical paradigm is an anonymous poster on the 360.com website Martial arts and calligraphy are two functional activities – self-defense who summarizes the health benefits of regular practice in these terms: and written communication – that have been highly aestheticized ‘It balances the central nervous system, strengthens the cardiovascular and spiritualized in East Asia. There are as many distinctive styles of system, improves the respiratory system, and promotes mental health’ calligraphy as there are martial arts styles: both are used as meditative [Anon.c 2018]. The case for taiji’s health benefits expressed in terms of practices, requiring a kind of calm concentration, and both combine traditional Chinese medicine is made by Yezi, who explains: self-cultivation with performative self-expression. Self-cultivation (xiuyang) is generally understood to encompass yangsheng (physical Taijiquan is perfectly adapted to nurture the ‘ health) and xiuxin (spiritual cultivation), with the two coming together – and ’ […], it addresses inner and outer, yin and in the practice of taijiquan. Shao Duorong highlights these dual yang, and maximizes the stimulation of qi and blood, while aspects when he says, ‘Master Zhang Sanfeng created taijiquan, an art minimizing waste and loss to the body’s reserves. […] It that ‘combines dao and skill’, to not only train the body and eliminate smoothes the flow of qi in the twelve regular and eight extra illness, but to cultivate the mind and nurture the spirit in order to channels, with special focus on the dantian, weilü, and changqiang banish falsehood and preserve truth, with the aim of achieving a high acupoints. level of virtue’ [Shao 2018]. Most authors emphasize the original [Yezi 2019] unity of self-defense and self-cultivation as a distinguishing feature of taijiquan, although in practice, individual styles and schools will often Safety, efficacy, and economy are common denominators for both focus on one aspect at the expense of the other. Is the acquisition of paradigms. skill in fighting an end in itself, or is realization of the dao an end that uses training in skill as a means? This is the question that lurks behind The Chinese custom of full-contact public leitai competitions, formerly many debates about taiji’s essence. During the era of simplification banned as decivilizing, have made a comeback of late, and even and standardization, the pendulum swung decisively in the direction taijiquan, arguably the most ‘civilized’ of all the martial arts, has been of health and recreation, but today, there is a strong push to return caught up in the trend. However, in the wake of a series of ignominious taijiquan to its more combative roots. defeats in the ring, an article on the Tengxunwang website asks: ‘Why Can’t Taijiquan Defeat Thai Boxing; Isn’t It True That Softness Proponents of taijiquan as a fighting art do not disavow its health Overcomes Hardness?’ Predictably this elicits a flood of posts and is benefits, as the results of thousands of studies conducted by such just the latest in a series of soul-searching responses to much-heralded prestigious institutions as Harvard, Mayo, Oxford, National Institute matches between taiji standard-bearers and exponents of other Asian of Health, etc., consistently show positive benefits for sleep, balance, martial arts, Western boxing, and mixed martial arts [Anon. 2019c]. cognition, stress, blood pressure, blood sugar, osteoporosis, as well as attention deficit in children and athletic performance. For taiji fighters, as taiji apologists seek to capture the high ground by claiming moral however, health benefits may be a side-effect of training but not the superiority. prime motivation. Many in China and abroad practice only the form as an abstract qigong routine and are unaware of, or not interested in, In spite of government calls for a ‘harmonious society’ and a ‘civilized the self-defense applications. If you accept ‘health’ as the standard, then society’, advocates of taiji’s fighting essence feel that now is their it must be compared with , Pilates, Alexander, Feldenkrais, etc. If moment. Chen stylist Ma Hong is one of the leaders of this offensive you take fighting as the standard, then it must be compared with karate, and he suggests that all theoretical discussions of taijiquan are a form taekwondo, capoeira, etc. And if you take spiritual practice as the of mystification [Ma 2004]. He says that nowadays in taijiquan circles, standard, then it must be compared with , or even religion. there is endless talk about health benefits but very little on self-defense, What is unique about taijiquan is precisely its ability to be all things to resulting in ‘a monotonous drum beat of articles that are flowery with all people. no substance, making it more and more mysterious and misleading sincere students’. Claims for the health benefits of taijiquan may be couched in either traditional Chinese medical or Western biomedical language. Of the Interestingly, Ma characterizes this trend as ‘conservative’, as if hundreds of thousands of articles on the health benefits of taijiquan, popularization and medicalization have become so normalized that one would be hard pressed to find a single negative review, but a few what was once radical is now reactionary. He points out that ‘force’

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is only negative when it is unaccompanied by suppleness. Similarly, Liberal vs Conservative slowness is simply a pedagogical strategy for teaching and should not be taken literally in combat. Dissenting from official policy, he adds: We arrive now at the seemingly more familiar category of liberal and ‘Promoting simplified forms has given taiji a bad name and is not conservative, only to learn that in the current Chinese political context, progress but regression (resulting in the loss of its true meaning)’. He habitual Western associations must be abandoned. As employed today advocates (a la Confucius’s ‘rectification of names’) calling the true taiji in China, ‘conservative’ denotes orthodox Marxist/Maoist ideology, ‘taijiquan’ and the simplified version ‘taijicao’ (taiji exercise). He laments and ‘liberal’ is closer to our notion of libertarian. The man-in-the-street simplification, mystification, and the proliferation of ‘beancurd styles’. metaphor circulating in China compares the economy to a cake: the Seconding this anti-simplification sentiment is Zhenxuan Caoren, who liberal/free market view favors baking the whole cake and then dividing pleads with his readers not to forsake taiji’s martial roots and turn it it, whereas the conservative/socialist view favors first dividing the into an exercise system. He blames simplified forms and points out that cake and then baking the slices, the former representing, perhaps, the foreigners who go to China avoid these and seek out the traditional Chinese version of ‘a rising tide lifts all ships’. Can we divine whether lineage masters, who preserve ‘the real taiji’, quoting the aphorism, liberals or conservatives are more likely to practice taijiquan in China, ‘The uninitiated look at what’s flashy; the initiated look at authentic or whether their interpretation of its meaning would be expressed in art’ [Zhenxuan 2014]. His argument appeals to foreign approval and terms of the dichotomies we have outlined above? traditional wisdom as his standards of value. New investigative instruments and mathematical modeling embolden Ma Changxun is a thoughtful pro-pugilist, who takes a reformist stance, us to begin asking such questions. Moreover, increased information straddling both self-cultivation and self-defense camps by injecting porosity occasioned by two-way tourism, student exchanges, and above health benefits into push-hands practice. He decries the current state all, social media have given us access to a wide spectrum of thought of push-hands, driven by its inclusion in martial arts competitions on contemporary culture and institutions. Still, we are often looking and unbecoming descent into wrestling and grappling. Like the form, through a glass darkly, and it is always instructive to remember that push-hands can be done in a constructive way without degenerating Deng Xiaoping, the architect of the current Reform Era, was also the into brutishness. Push-hands can be a way of applying and sharpening one who called in the tanks to crush the Democracy Wall Movement. the experience of principles but not in the context of wrestling matches. Chinese politics are usually analyzed by who’s up and who’s down, Real push-hands is a form of self-cultivation and somatic sensitivity slogans, like ‘revolution is no crime, rebellion is justified’, and mass training, Ma insists, and even spectators can derive health benefits movements, such as the Great Leap Forward or Cultural Revolution. and pleasure from a kind of kinetic empathy, much like the esthetic From these, analysts construct hypothetical factions, such as the experience of watching dance. He says that push-hands is unique for ‘princelings’ or Communist Youth League, competing regional models its civility, safety, and philosophical content, enabling practitioners to of development, such as Shanghai, and Guangzhou, and transcend egocentric competitiveness and react spontaneously without ideological configurations, such as Old Left and New Left, Liberal and mental calculation. He says that ‘qi’ is simply the pleasurable feeling Conservative, and so forth. from letting go, releasing tension and combining skill and spontaneity in a flow, much like partner dancing. Likewise, when uprooted by Social media gives us access to the private opinions of ordinary citizens, a partner/opponent in a relaxed, cooperative way, it is healthy and with anonymity allowing for considerable freedom of speech. This pleasurable to both participants. Ma’s compromise, then, reconciles medium has afforded us a glimpse of a passionate and highly partisan extremes and seeks to reform, preserve, and restore push-hands to its debate over the origins, function, and ultimately essence of taijiquan. status as a true internal art. In a similar vein, an anonymous poster Recently, however, a new instrument – the social survey – has provided on the ‘Tianya shequ’ website takes a non-dogmatic, common-sense unusually candid, and often confounding, insights into popular opinion approach when he says: ‘If you say that taijiquan is good for health, I on a variety of topics. Launched from the West, these surveys aim believe it; if you say it is powerful, I believe it; but if you say that it is to capture a cross-section of public opinion primarily of interest to miraculous and that Western boxing is nothing, I absolutely disagree’ economists and foreign policy makers. As a result, the Ash Center [Anon. 2013]. The moderates, then, would honor the full spectrum, social survey (2003-2018), Hu Fu’s Asian Barometer Survey (2019), and avoiding the extremes of declawing or depacifying. Andreas Mulvad’s interviews with 28 Chinese intellectuals are limited in their usefulness for our purposes. However, Jennifer Pan and Xu Yiqing’s Ideological Spectrum Survey, first deployed in 2014, and with successive waves, includes several questions intended to elicit views on

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traditional culture, that, although not specifically related to martial arts, capitalism, why not Confucianism with Marxism? If Inoue Tetsujiro might allow us to extrapolate with cautious confidence. Of the total could insist on an unbroken line of descent of 10,000 years from the of fifty questions, the handful addressing attitudes towards traditional Sun Goddess to the Japanese imperial family, what is a mere 1,000 years Chinese medicine, the (Book of Changes), Confucianism, from Zhang Sanfeng to the present? simplified characters, and role of the ancient classics in the school curriculum are most relevant for our speculation here. The authors of For us, though, how would advocates of rehabilitating Confucianism the survey summarize the new alignments that their data reveal: align with the various positions on taijiquan? Of course, the teachings of the old Sage have been around for two and a half millennia, and Individuals who are politically conservative, who emphasize with the exception of the ‘burn the (Confucian) classics and bury the supremacy of the state and nationalism, are also likely to be economically conservative, supporting a return to socialism ‘criticize Confucius and Lin Biao’ campaign of the Cultural Revolution, and state control of the economy, and culturally conservative, Confucianism has managed to accommodate itself to a variety of supporting traditional, Confucian values. In contrast, political regimes. Indeed, Confucianism seems to be the ‘God of the gaps’ liberals, supportive of constitutional democracy and individual whenever East Asia faces a spiritual vacuum. liberty, are also likely to be economic liberals who support market-oriented reform and social liberals who support Dialectical materialism in the context of utopian socialism provided an modern science and values such as sexual freedom. optimistic, millenarian vision for a time, but poverty and ideological [Pan & Xu 2016: 1] purity lost their charm after the Cultural Revolution, and the conspicuous consumption of the current nouveau riche generation is not Mulvad’s ‘two-dimensional’ model attempts to complicate the sustainable. The recent rehabilitation of Confucianism reflects a nativist ‘monochrome’ picture of authoritarian state socialists versus democratic impulse, but splits into two strains: one stresses the authoritarian, liberals by accounting for strange bedfellows like Neo-Confucians statist, hierarchical aspect, and the other, adopted by New Left and the Old Left, who find themselves in agreement, for example, progressive Confucians, stresses the ethical aspect of benevolence, about paternalistic leadership but split over property rights. Thus, righteousness, and even self-sacrifice in opposing tyranny, very much although it seems logical to assume that those who believe that the ‘can explain many things well’ in the Pan and Xu survey would a century earlier. Although ‘Confucianism’ is indisputably ‘ancient’, naturally be in agreement on the foundational role of the in taiji and taijiquan’s pedigree is largely ‘invented’, both share a claim to theory, we know from our findings that both idealists and materialists embodying China’s essence. It is not surprising, therefore, that valuable claim the , based on its dialectical method. Again, even before properties like Confucianism and taijiquan are such hotly contested 1949, all but the most radical leftists were in favor of preserving the cultural assets. After all, if philosophy and the arts can never be traditional martial arts, so there is no clear left-right cleavage from separated from politics, why should the martial arts? the beginning of the modern period. Similarly, is it safe to say that someone who ‘strongly disagrees’ with the proposition that ‘simplified characters should be promoted’ would also oppose simplification of taijiquan forms, or is the question moot, since both ‘simplifications’ are Conclusion fait accompli? In any case, it appears that Mulvad is correct in sensing that we need ‘two dimensions’ to capture today’s configurations, and Thinking about taijiquan’s essence, or true nature, begs the questions with our findings, it may even require a third. As ever, ‘politics makes of whether it is inherently more multidimensional than other martial strange bedfellows’. arts, or whether its popularity attracted more attention and made it a site of hotly contested claims. Certainly, Japanese martial arts have Meiji era Japan, Nationalist era China, and Deng era People’s Republic similarly evolved to embody national ethos and a ‘way of life’. Or, is have all sought to soften the shock of modernization with the salve it that martial arts, as a kind of performing art, are intrinsically more of Confucianism, seen as providing continuity with tradition. Today, resistant to fixed definition than written texts or plastic arts? Debates while Party rhetoric continues to insist on the ideological orthodoxy in China today divide sharply over origins, philosophical orientation of ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’, the country hurtles and role in society, but they are strictly structuralist, assuming that headlong into the embrace of its two former heresies: capitalism taijiquan is a stable entity with definable parameters that distinguish and Confucianism. After all, if Christianity can make its peace with it from other martial arts. Is the search for taijiquan’s essence infected

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with essentialism? This is a bit like archaeologists unearthing an axe today looks backward to a mythical past and forward to exploiting new and arguing over who made it and for what purpose – utilitarian, ritual, opportunities for commercialization. Modernizing trends in taijiquan decorative – while agreeing that it is an ‘axe’. have mainly played out in the form of simplification and popularization, whereas distinctions of ‘classic’ and ‘modern’ in tennis are based on Comparison undoubtedly serves to highlight difference, and difference biomechanical technique. Finally, tennis has no body of classics, and no can perhaps advance our search for essence. It is common to compare claim to be the summation and symbol of everything fine in the culture. taijiquan to other martial arts, and as such, assume it is a survival skill, Few in China would be embarrassed to say that their spiritual life was usually called ‘self-defense’; but for heuristic purposes, let us compare fulfilled by taijiquan, whereas few Westerners would make that claim taijiquan to a physical activity without roots in survival, say tennis, for tennis. for example. As competition, tennis is a kind of push-hands sparring with a ball, while push-hands is like rallying without a ball. Having Taking our thought experiment one step further, tennis belongs to the said that, we immediately confront the distinction that many practice general category of racket sports (badminton, ping-pong, squash, etc.), taijiquan exclusively as a solo form, while tennis has not evolved a and as such, shares some basic body mechanics; taijiquan belongs to the similar shadow practice. In other words, tennis’ eight stokes: service, general category of martial arts, and as such, shares at least the external overhead, forehand, backhand, lob, drop, slice and volley, unlike taiji’s form of some basic body mechanics. Let us say further that what ‘eight techniques’ – peng, lü,, an, cai, lie, zhou, kao – did not become the distinguishes taijiquan from other self-defense systems is a common elements of a choreographed routine. movement vocabulary across various styles (single whip, cloud hands, snake creeps down, etc.), distinctive movement qualities (softness, On the social level, both can provide the organizing principle for social slowness, sinking, continuity) and movement principles (full and empty, life, and exclusive country club memberships are as coveted as ‘indoor’ root, waist rotation, single-weightedness, etc.) and a phenomenology discipleships. Club professionals and pro-tour stars are analogous of internal awareness akin to meditation (breath, pulse, acupoints, to ‘masters’ and ‘grand masters’, although tennis rankings and titles qi-channels, etc.). In push-hands (tuishou) and sparring (sanshou), the are determined by objective criteria, and material compensation is watchwords are: yielding, borrowing, sticking, listening, following and not remotely comparable. On the biomechanical level, virtually all deflection. Finally, taijiquan boasts a normative, pre-modern textual of taijiquan’s techniques are reducible to forehand and backhand tradition which is rich in abstract yin-yang cosmology and concrete mechanics, issuing force either through the palm or back of the hand, metaphors that serve a mnemonic function, linking intellect and while ‘borrowing energy’ in tennis is a function of ball compression and imagination with physical realization. string elasticity, rather than peng in the body of the practitioner. Tennis performance has undoubtedly benefited from advances in kinesiology, Having described a martial art that seeks to cultivate an inner ecology biomechanics and sports medicine, while taiji practice has been of energy over force and mind over matter, what then do we make of enriched by , qigong and meditation. the ‘external’ stylist, or indeed, tennis player, who performs their art with these same ‘internal’ movement qualities and awareness, versus the In tennis, preoccupation with the scoreboard militates against entering ‘taijiquan’ practitioner who performs the taiji form without root, waist the ‘flow’ state, while taijiquan explicitly encourages subjectivity rotation, single-weightedness, softness, slowness, or inner awareness? and awareness of ‘internal’ sensations. Nevertheless, on the psycho/ The principles revealed in the taijiquan classics are generic descriptions spiritual level, although orientalist creations like ‘the Zen of tennis’, of body mechanics, movement qualities, and internal cultivation, which ‘inner tennis’ or ‘mindful tennis’ are appropriated as a kind of self-help could be applied to any martial art or athletic activity. Let us say further therapy to address personal issues, the native Chinese approach to taiji that among the various taijiquan styles, there is a shared vocabulary is more often framed in terms of transpersonal goals. As a pro-longevity of techniques and fealty to the ‘classics’, but what is the irreducible practice, few would say that their understanding or performance of minimum to qualify as ‘taijiquan?’ Is slowness alone sufficient, or the tennis improved in old age, whereas many longtime practitioners of familiar repertoire of postures? taiji would report a deepening of understanding and an open-ended experience of progress in performance. Or, let us take a song, for example. The irreducible essence of a song is its lyrics and melody; musical arrangement, i.e., harmony, Advances in tennis are based on insights from movement science and performer’s interpretation, might differ, but it would still be and exercise physiology, on the one hand, and on political struggles recognizable as the same song. For the sake of argument, let us say that for racial and gender equality, on the other, while taijiquan in China the ‘thirteen postures’ of taijiquan are analogous to the twelve tones of

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the Western musical scale, and that the movement principles of the taiji Dr. Aaron Sciascia: ‘Force is developed in the legs and trunk ‘classics’ are analogous to diatonic harmony theory in Western music. in a closed kinetic chain fashion, energy is funneled through Is the same lyric set to a different melody the same song? Is soccer still the scapula, and the energy is then transferred to the arm…’ soccer if you allow all players to catch and throw the ball? Is blank verse [Sciascia 2017] poetry; is free verse poetry; and if so, how do they differ from prose? Is this all a case of Justice Stuart’s, ‘I can’t define pornography, but I know Failing to embody what the calls ‘one continuous it when I see it’? flow of qi’, or what kinesiology calls the ‘closed kinetic chain’, begs the questions: Is it simply bad taiji, or not taiji at all? It is possible to In philosophical terms, slowness, continuity, and so forth are universals throw a baseball a short distance using only a flick of the wrist, or only and can be found in many activities, but what are the particulars that articulating the wrist and elbow, or only the wrist, elbow and shoulder, distinguish taijiquan? Or, from the Buddhist perspective, are the ‘eight but a pitcher who initiates the wave from the foot, legs and torso, techniques’, and ‘five stances’ like the ‘five skandhas’, producing the adding kick, stride and weight shift can launch a baseball a hundred illusion of a unique and permanent entity called taijiquan? Some will miles an hour. Taiji taolu practice has no reality check in the form of a only be satisfied with a definition of taijiquan that includes the belief ball, and push-hands often degenerates into a contest of brute force or that it is uniquely capable of cultivating internal potential energy (qi) simply weight advantage. that can be expressed (fa) as force () to repel opponents, withstand blows, or therapeutically, to heal patients by touch or remote intention. Debates in China over ideology or Western fantasies of ‘the little old Chinese man’ [Frank 2006] make for interesting social science, but What are the criteria for judging kinetic performance? Kinetic ultimately do not advance the art as much as revisiting the classics in performance can be measured on the stopwatch, scale, or scoreboard. light of their prescient consonance with modern movement science. Native ability – strength, speed, endurance, coordination – can carry We began our inquiry with the observation that taijiquan has been a the day in the schoolyard, but coaching can make the difference when political football in China for more than a century, and that recently all participants are athletically gifted. Social dance prizes grace and the terms of the debate had changed, reflecting, perhaps, new realities spontaneity, and stage dance unites efficiency, emotion and esthetics and new cultural or political configurations. Certainly, taijiquan is not in an art of mute story-telling or abstract design. Ballet makes no the flash point for political or philosophical controversies in the West, pretense of natural movement, imposing pointe, turn out, line, and but ‘national sports’, like baseball and football, international sports like extension. The taijiquan form is, perhaps, closer to mime than to any soccer, cricket and rugby, and, of course, the Olympics, are seldom free other art, with each posture mimicking a specific self-defense technique. of political passions. Definition represents a kind of ownership, and the With no objective accountability, however, the only distinguishing intensity of debates over ownership is a tribute to taijiquan’s success. characteristics to the casual observer may be slowness and a kind of faux fluidity, exhibiting synchronicity but not causality, that is, with ‘open kinetic chain’ movement, or ‘independent arm action’ – the tail wagging the dog, or simply wagging itself. However, when performed with full closed kinetic chain connection and mental absorption, the reward is rapt entrainment, like the Zhuangzi’s ‘free and easy wandering’.

Our investigation began with two quotations that express the same patriotic sentiment from opposite sides of the political aisle, and we end with another pair, two centuries and two worlds apart, that express the same biophysical formula:

(The classic of taijiquan): ‘The root (of force) is in the feet, develops in the legs, is directed by the waist, and projected through the fingers’. [Wile 1983: 102]

36 Fall 2020 MARTIAL Marx, Myth and Metaphysics ARTS STUDIES Douglas Wile

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Journal DOI 10.18573/ISSN.2057-5696 Issue DOI 10.18573/mas.i10

Accepted for publication 30 October 2020

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MARTIAL ARTS STUDIES

EDITORS EDITORIAL ADVISORY PANEL

Paul Bowman Oleg Benesch University of York Benjamin N. Judkins Stephen Chan SOAS Greg Downey Macquarie University D.S. Farrer University of Guam Adam Frank University of Central Arkansas Thomas A. Green Texas A&M University T. J. Hinrichs Cornell University Leon Hunt Brunel University London Felipe P. Jocano Jr University of the Philippines Gina Marchetti Hong Kong University Meaghan Morris The University of Sydney Daniel Mroz University of Ottawa Meir Shahar Tel Aviv University Dale Spencer Carleton University Douglas Wile Alverno College

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